Somalia Can’t get out of its own Way

Days before the New Year, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned from his position as president of Somalia’s transitional government. No one knows what will happen next, but many say it can’t get much worse.

Yusuf had been holding up a peace deal with the nation’s increasingly powerful Islamist groups which is odd since his government controlled no more than a few city blocks in a country the size of New Mexico. 

That’s quite a come down for one of Somalia’s original warlords who tends to approach political challenges with rocket-propelled grenades.

Rashid Abdi, who analyzes Somalia for the International Crisis Group believes Yusuf’s resignation is “good news” according to the New York Times, because “it may create the opportunity to put a more conciliatory figure in charge.”

But who might that be? The transitional government is a power-sharing deal involving 4 clans, and the moderate Islamic cleric that many believe can unite the country comes from the same clan as the prime minister. That’s a non-starter for the other clans.

It probably doesn’t matter though because it’s not clear anyone wants a job that involves staring down famine poised once again to engulf millions and mediating the grievances of multiple Islamist factions that have been duking it out for 2 years, displacing one in 9 Somalis in the process. 

Not to mention those friggin’ pirates off the coast.

Radical Islamic militias like the Shabab control most of Somalia right now. These lunkheads behead enemies, beat people that don’t attend Friday prayers and stone to death girls claiming to have been raped.

That’s exactly what the US was trying to prevent 2 years ago when it backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. As of today however, the Ethiopians have packed up and are outta’ there.

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